No one wants to lead a mediocre lifestyle, each one of us wants to live the life of our dreams. But one thing that often comes in the way of achieving our dreams is procrastination.
Think about how many times have you told yourself, “I’ll start working out next week,” or “I’ll finally do it over the weekend”? But when the moment comes, somehow it’s easier to scroll through social media or binge another series instead.
If you’re thinking of breaking this bad habit and wondering, can journaling help me with procrastination? Well, the short answer is yes, but only if you do it the right way.
Now, I’m not here to make you feel guilty or bad about those unfinished plans or missed opportunities. Life happens, and procrastination? It also happens to the best of us.
But journaling is a powerful tool that can help combat procrastination and regain control over your time.
I’m not saying this because it sounds good, but because I have experienced it myself. If you’ve been reading my blogs then you would know, but if you’re new here, let me tell you that I’ve been living with fibromyalgia for about four years now.
One of the challenges that comes with fibromyalgia is brain fog which makes it hard to focus, remember, and stay motivated. That combined with my habit of procrastination becomes a deadly combination.
But over the past few months or so, I decided to take my journaling practice seriously and its impact has been undeniable.
No, it hasn’t magically turned me into a productivity guru. But what it has done is given me a better sense of awareness about how I spend my time, what tasks I’m avoiding, and why.
It has helped me break down overwhelming to-do lists and focus on smaller steps instead of stressing over the bigger picture.
Let’s talk a little bit more in detail about procrastination and how journaling can help you with it in this blog. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Can Journaling Help with Procrastination?
Journaling can absolutely help with procrastination, but the tricky part is that it can also become a sneaky way to procrastinate even more. I learned this the hard way.
Even since I was a kid I dabbled in journaling, but it was more of a “dear diary” type of thing. It wasn’t a consistent habit. Honestly, the main reason was that I couldn’t resist a beautiful notebook or a set of colorful pens.
I’ve always been a fan of stationery, and buying a fresh journal would inspire me to write… for a few days, at least. But the habit would fizzle out as quickly as it started.
It wasn’t until 2022 that I started journaling seriously.
My doctor and therapist both suggested it to help manage my fibromyalgia. Writing down my thoughts and emotions was supposed to help ease the mental stress and even alleviate some of the physical pain I experienced.
And it did help, for a while.
But then journaling started to feel like a chore. I was trying to do too much at once. Planning my day, tracking goals, venting my feelings, all in one notebook.
It became overwhelming, and instead of helping me, it turned into another task on my to-do list. What’s even worse was that I was writing about what I needed to do rather than actually doing it.
I’d think, “Well, I’ve written it down, so I’ll get to it later,” and that “later” often never came.
This is the trap I want to warn you about because while journaling is a very powerful way to overcome procrastination, it also easily backfires if you do it the wrong way like we just talked about.
We’ll talk about how you can make it work for you without falling into the same trap in the upcoming sections.
6 Common Causes of Procrastination
Procrastination isn’t as simple as being lazy or unmotivated. In fact, it often has more to do with the underlying emotions, habits, or thoughts that make starting, or finishing, a task feel like an uphill battle.
Here are some of the most common reasons people procrastinate, and understanding the causes can help you address them.
Fear of Failure
One of the most paralyzing causes of procrastination is the fear of failing. When you worry about not meeting expectations, whether your own or someone else’s, putting off the task feels like a way to avoid disappointment.
But what we don’t understand is that this fear only builds more pressure over time and creates a cycle that’s tough to break.
Perfectionism
Striving for perfection might sound like a good thing but it can stop you in your tracks.
When you want everything to be “just right,” you can easily get stuck in the planning phase and never actually move forward because you’re waiting for the perfect moment, or the perfect version of your work.
Overwhelming Tasks
Have you ever looked at a task and thought, “Where do I even begin?” When something feels too big or complicated, avoiding it feels like the easiest option.
Without breaking it down into smaller steps, the whole thing can feel intimidating and unmanageable.
Low Energy or Burnout
When you’re running on empty, even the simplest task can feel monumental. Whether it’s from lack of sleep, stress, or physical exhaustion, low energy levels can sap your motivation and make procrastination feel inevitable.
Lack of Clarity
For me, this is the biggest reason. I often find my mind buzzing with so many thoughts, ideas, worries, reminders, and plans that it’s hard to focus on what actually needs to be done.
When you don’t have a clear starting point or direction, it’s tempting to push tasks aside rather than dive into the chaos.
Journaling has helped me untangle my thoughts to some extent, but there are still days when the sheer volume of “mental clutter” makes clarity hard to find.
Fear of the Unknown
Not knowing how something will turn out can also make us hesitate. It’s human nature to avoid uncertainty even when we know that taking action is the only way to move forward.
Understanding these causes is the first step to overcoming procrastination. Whether it’s fear, perfectionism, or lack of clarity, recognizing what’s holding you back can help you take small and actionable steps to push through.
How Does Procrastination Affect Productivity and Mental Health?
When we procrastinate, we generally think that we’re buying ourselves a bit of relief by pushing a task aside for later to avoid the effort or discomfort of tackling it now.
But what we often overlook is that delaying a task doesn’t make it disappear. Instead, it quietly looms in the background and creates a constant mental weight that drains your focus and energy.
From a productivity standpoint, procrastination shortens the time you have to complete a task. This usually leads to rushed and last-minute efforts where the quality of work suffers.
Worse, unfinished tasks or missed deadlines can pile up and create a snowball effect of stress and overwhelm. Even when you’re not actively working on something, just knowing it’s waiting for you can sap your motivation for other tasks.
It’s a vicious cycle. The more you delay, the harder it becomes to start and the less time you have to do it well.
The mental toll of procrastination is just as damaging, if not more so. Tasks left undone tend to linger in your mind, creating a constant undercurrent of stress.
You might feel guilty for not starting sooner or frustrated at yourself for not taking action. As the deadline comes closer, those feelings of guilt and frustration often intensify and make you feel overwhelmed.
Over time, this habit of constantly putting off things negatively impacts your self-esteem. You might experience feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, and even burnout.
5 Ways Journaling Helps With Procrastination
Let’s dive into the heart of this blog, the part you’ve been waiting for, how to journal the right way so it can help with procrastination.
1. Journaling Gives Clarity on Priorities and Goals
If there’s one thing that makes procrastination worse for me, it’s my monkey mind. My thoughts are always leaping from one thing to another.
I’d start thinking about a work task, and before I know it, my mind would wander to what I should cook for dinner or a vacation I want to plan.
Then, somehow, I’d end up daydreaming about a completely unrelated scenario. What should I order next or what my dream house would look like? It’s like my brain has its own agenda, and I’m just along for the ride.
Journaling helps me with this mental chaos. Every week, I sit down with my journal and list out everything I need to do in the upcoming week, no matter how small or big.
Once it’s in front of me, I can see things more clearly. Then I organize them into three buckets: Urgent and essential, Important but not urgent, and When time allows.
This simple process of categorizing them makes it so much easier for me to focus on what’s truly important.
2. Journaling Helps Break Down Tasks into Manageable Steps
Once I’ve organized my weekly to-do list in my journal, I then break it down into smaller actionable items. This makes everything feel much more achievable because I don’t have to tackle everything at once.
There are some tasks that would need my urgent attention while others can wait until later in the week when the time allows.
This way I spread my weekly goals and to-dos across different days of that week. This helps me avoid that overwhelming feeling of having too much to do and no clue where to start.
I’ve made it a habit to start my mornings with journaling while sipping on my herbal tea.
We have designed our own digital journal because I wanted something that reflected what I needed. Space for mindfulness, gratitude, affirmations, self-care, daily planning, and daily health tracking.
So I usually start by writing down one thing I’m grateful for that day and then I list my to-dos for the day.
Since I work a 9-to-5 job, some of the things on my daily planner page are work-related tasks while others are related to this blog and my personal life. I write everything down, organized and clear.
Before I started journaling this way, everything I needed to do would swirl around in my head like a jumbled mess. I’d focus on one thing, then suddenly remember another, drop what I was doing, and switch gears.
It was chaotic and exhausting. Now, with my journal, I know exactly what I need to focus on, and I don’t feel like I’m constantly chasing after my own to-do list. It’s made such a difference.
3. Reflecting on the Day to Clear Your Mind
One of the most rewarding habits I’ve developed through journaling is taking a moment at the end of each day to reflect.
There are days when I manage to check off almost everything on my to-do list and let me tell you, that feeling is so rewarding. It’s like a little celebration for getting through the day and making progress, no matter how small.
Our daily planner has a section at the bottom that starts with “Today was…” followed by a few empty lines. I use this space to practice mindfulness and unload my thoughts.
I write about how my day went, what went well, what didn’t, what I accomplished, what didn’t go as planned, and why certain tasks didn’t get done.
I don’t do it to judge myself but to become aware, recognize patterns, celebrate wins, and understand setbacks. I use it to be mindful of how I spend my time and clear my mind of all the clutter, both good and bad.
I must tell you that it is a very cathartic and rewarding process. I can’t tell you how much lighter I feel after this short reflecting session.
We have also added a health tracker page in the journal so I can write down things related to my health like what I ate throughout the day, how much water I drank, how well I slept, my mood, and even my mood, what exercise I did, and any supplements and medicines I took in the day.
This short reflection session has made a world of difference. It has helped me understand patterns in my behavior and overcome procrastination.
It has helped me understand why certain tasks weren’t completed. Whether it was due to distractions, overestimating my capacity, or some genuine reasons that came up unexpectedly.
All in all, it has allowed me to plan better for the days ahead.
4. Journaling Creates a Sense of Accountability
One of the benefits of journaling is that it creates a sense of accountability. When you write down everything you need to do, whether it’s your daily to-dos or long-term goals, it’s right there in front of you.
You can’t ignore it, you can’t pretend you forgot it, and running away from it feels a lot harder.
For me, having my tasks written down acts as a gentle nudge, reminding me of my responsibilities throughout the day. It’s not about being harsh on myself but about having a clear record of what I said I would do.
When I glance at my journal and see those unchecked boxes or incomplete tasks, it pushes me to take action.
I’ve also noticed that this process keeps me honest with myself. If I didn’t do something, it’s there in black and white, and I can’t blame anyone or anything else for it.
Instead, I reflect on what held me back. Was it procrastination, distractions, or simply poor planning?
This accountability doesn’t just keep me on track but also motivates me to take small and consistent steps. Over time, these little steps add up and that’s when I realize how much journaling helps me stay disciplined and focused.
5. Building Consistency Through Habit Formation
When I started journaling, I thought it would just be a tool to help me get through the tasks piling up in my head. What I didn’t expect was how it would slowly turn into a habit that anchors my day.
Now, every morning, I sit down with my journal and my herbal tea, and it feels as natural as brushing my teeth. This little routine didn’t just make journaling second nature, it set the stage for building consistency in other areas of my life.
There’s something about showing up for yourself every single day, even in small ways, that makes a difference.
Journaling taught me that consistency isn’t about grand gestures, it’s about the small and intentional actions you take daily.
Through this practice, I’ve learned to create a rhythm for my day. Writing down my tasks and reflecting on them in the evening has become part of my system. It helps me stay focused even when life feels overwhelming.
And this consistency I built through journaling has spilled over into other habits. It’s helped me stick to routines, overcome procrastination, and make steady progress towards my goals.
Consistency isn’t easy, but journaling has shown me it’s possible, and that even the smallest rituals can create meaningful change.
How Does Journaling Help With Productivity?
One of the things I love most about journaling is how much clarity it brings to my life. It is not just about writing things but about giving my thoughts a place to land so they’re not running circles in my head all day.
For someone like me, who often feels pulled in a million directions, it’s the clarity journaling brings that has made all the difference.
When I take the time to write down my tasks, it feels like I’m sorting through the noise. Seeing everything laid out in front of me makes it so much easier to focus on what actually matters.
I don’t waste energy stressing over what I might forget because it’s all there in black and white. It’s like creating a mini action plan every time I sit down to journal.
Journaling has also made me more intentional with my time. At the end of the day, I reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where I could have done better.
It’s not about being hard on myself but about learning and adjusting for tomorrow. It’s a continuous process of learning and improving.
And when you see your to-dos written out, staring back at you, it’s harder to ignore them. Journaling has helped me stay honest with myself and build the discipline to follow through.
In short, journaling isn’t just a habit for me anymore; it’s a productivity system.
It keeps me organized, focused, and on track so I can spend my time on what truly matters instead of constantly feeling like I’m playing catch-up.
Related Blog: How Can Journaling Boost Your Productivity
Does Journaling Help Stop Overthinking?
When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I don’t always know what’s bothering me. It’s like my mind decides to throw a dozen thoughts at me all at once, none of them fully formed, yet all demanding my attention.
That’s when journaling becomes my lifeline. Just jotting things down, even if they don’t make sense at first, helps me feel less anxious and clears my head.
And trust me, on the days I skip it, I can feel the difference. It’s like the fog of overwhelm hangs around longer, making everything harder.
Let me tell you a little secret. Now I use the digital journal we designed ourselves but back when I used a physical journal, I’d sometimes flip through old pages and let the sadness in those pages swallow me whole.
It felt like reliving those moments, which wasn’t helpful at all. So, one day, I decided to tear out those pages and burn them, literally.
Journaling also helps me with overthinking because it forces me to focus on one thought at a time. When my brain is playing ping-pong with twenty contradicting ideas, writing them down slows the chaos.
I can make sense of it all, sometimes by writing a pros and cons list or by categorizing what’s realistic versus what’s just fear talking.
Seeing my thoughts laid out this way makes it easier to let go of what doesn’t serve me and focus on what does.
For me, journaling is more than just a habit. It’s a tool that helps me clear my head, see things for what they are, and stop spiraling into the endless “what-ifs.”
Related Blog: How to Journal for Overthinking
Does Journaling Help With Decision Making?
Absolutely! If I’ve not already said it enough, writing my thoughts down makes them so much clearer and easier to make sense. Instead of the constant back-and-forth in my head, I can see my options laid out in front of me.
One of the things I do at the start of every month is complete my monthly planner page, which kind of gives an overview or a blueprint of what my month is going to look like.
Obviously, you can’t know for sure what other things are going to come up later, but it gives you an idea of what to expect. I do the same for my weeks.
The other thing I do is make lists. Sometimes it’s a simple “pros vs. cons” list or writing out the potential outcomes of each choice. What might feel overwhelming in my mind often looks much simpler on paper.
I can weigh the options more objectively and identify what really matters to me in that moment.
It also helps me understand the hidden fears or biases that might be clouding my judgment. Sometimes, as I write, I realize that what’s holding me back isn’t even about the decision itself, it’s the fear of failure or of making the “wrong” choice.
Being able to see that on paper helps me address those feelings instead of letting them control my actions.
Ultimately, journaling is like having a conversation with myself. A way to pause, think things through, and make decisions that feel intentional and aligned with what I truly want.
Journal Prompts You Can Use to Stop Procrastination
Here are some prompts you can use to stop procrastination:
- What task have I been avoiding, and why?
Sometimes, just naming the task can reduce its power over you. - What is the worst thing that could happen if I just start?
This prompt forces you to consider the “big scary consequences” your mind might be exaggerating. Spoiler alert: It’s rarely as bad as it feels. - What’s one small step I can take toward completing this task today?
Breaking tasks into bite-sized steps can make them feel more manageable. - How will I feel once this task is done?
Visualizing the relief or satisfaction you’ll feel after completing the task can be a powerful motivator to get started. - What rewards can I give myself for making progress today?
Sometimes, a little incentive can go a long way. Write about how you’ll treat yourself once you complete the task, even if it’s something small like your favorite snack or a quick break. - What would my future self thank me for doing right now?
This is to help you see the bigger picture.
Wrapping Up – Can Journaling Help With Procrastination?
I know I’ve written about journaling here like I’m some kind of expert, but let me tell you I’m not.
I’m just a regular girl who decided to give it a shot, failed at it more times than I care to admit, picked myself back up, and slowly began to see its benefits unfold.
Everything I’ve shared comes from my own experience, my own struggles, and my own wins along the way.
I don’t journal every single day of the week. I try to, but we’re all human. Life happens, routines get disrupted, and sometimes you fall off the wagon. But that’s okay.
Journaling isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being present, even if it’s just for a few minutes on most days. And those minutes add up.
From whatever experience I’ve had with journaling so far, it is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
Journaling has definitely helped me with procrastination but on top of that, it has helped me keep track of my well-being, become a better version of myself, and work towards manifesting my dream life.
More than that, it’s helped me become more self-aware, kinder to myself, and grateful for the little wins I often overlooked before.
If you’ve been toying with the idea of starting a journal, this is your sign to go for it. Whether it’s a physical notebook or something digital, the act of putting your thoughts down can truly be transformative.
And if you’re curious about the one I use, it’s something we designed ourselves, and I absolutely love it.
I’ll leave a link down below in case you’d like to check it out. Please share your learnings and experiences with me, I’m so excited to hear about them. Namaste!
Related Blogs – Journaling
- What Is Journaling and What Are Its Benefits?
- What Are The Different Types of Journaling
- 5 Simple Steps to Start Journaling for Mental Health
- How and Why You Should Start a Gratitude Journal
- How to Journal for Personal Growth and Self-improvement
- What Is a Manifestation Journal and How to Journal for Manifestation
- How to Start a Health and Wellness Journal
- What Is a Morning Journal and How to Journal in the Morning?
- Journaling vs. Keeping a Diary: What’s the Difference?
- The Pros and Cons of Journaling
- What Type of Self Care Is Journaling?
FAQs – Does Journaling Help With Procrastination?
What Is the Best Therapy for Procrastination?
Honestly, there isn’t a universal answer because it depends on what works best for you.
For me, journaling has been incredibly helpful. It’s like a self-check-in that helps me reflect on what’s holding me back and make sense of it all. Pairing journaling with mindfulness or other habits can also work wonders.
What Are the General Benefits of Journaling for Mental Well-Being?
Journaling is like giving your thoughts a place to breathe. It clears the chaos in your mind, helps you celebrate the small wins, and process the tough days.
It’s also a great way to track your growth and connect with yourself on a deeper level.
How Does Journaling Assist in Identifying Procrastination Triggers?
When you jot down your day, patterns start to emerge. Writing about what didn’t get done or why you struggled helps you see if distractions, fears, or even unrealistic goals are holding you back.
It’s like turning a messy puzzle into something you can solve.
How Can Reflective Writing Lead to Better Time Management?
When you reflect on your day, it gives you clarity on where your time went and what could’ve been done better. Writing things down helps you recognize what works and what doesn’t, making it easier to plan smarter for tomorrow.
What Role Does Accountability and Goal Setting Play Alongside Journaling?
Journaling holds you accountable because once it’s written, it’s there staring back at you. Writing goals down makes them feel more real, and reflecting on them regularly keeps you motivated to actually follow through.
It’s like having a personal coach in your notebook.
Leave a Reply